Round 2: Fixing Formula 1

I used to write a lot more about Formula 1. This is obviously not in a professional capacity at all, it's purely because I enjoy writing about a sport I've followed for over 25 years and if the occasional person enjoys a little read then all the better.

However, my output has steadily decreased over the last year. Not because I haven't been enjoying the racing (although admittedly 2015 was nowhere near being a classic... or good come to that), but because the constant political wrangling behind the scenes was beginning to just do my head in, to be ever so slightly flippant. I mean I like a bit of political intrigue in the F1 world, but this is now threatening the life of Formula 1. 

The governance of the sport has been sorely lacking for a while now, the teams, although often trying to appear to be on the side of the fans are often on the side of themselves, the drivers are often ignored.

So let's start with the present furore over qualifying. Last year and for the nine years previously we have been using a three session system where 5 or 6 cars get knocked out in each of the first two sessions leaving the final session with 10 cars going for pole position. It worked nicely, it was generally exciting, it caused the occasional upset. 

A few weeks before the 2016 season started the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone conjured up a new system with the aim of mixing up the grid to create better racing forgetting that this is not WWE and is in fact a sport. Nobody asked for a change in qualifying as there was nothing wrong with it but a change was eventually somehow voted through. The teams warned it wasn't likely to be good but common sense is something that long vanished from this sport.

At the first round in Australia it was rubbish, leaving the track empty by the end and any hope of a top runner messing up would have been just as likely with the old system. The teams all agreed to go back to the 2015 system but as there has to be unanimity for a change to be made in-season, this was blocked by the various structures that govern the sport. So despite everyone hating it, it stayed for the second race of the season. Guess what? Yep, wasn't great a second time round either.

The FIA and the Commercial Rights Holder offered an alternative of an aggregate system for the next race in China, again forgetting that everyone wants the old system and that an aggregate system in 2005 was dropped mid-season because it didn't allow for the spectacular foot to the floor on the edge laps that can grab pole position in the dying seconds which the likes of Lewis Hamilton excel at and makes for thrilling viewing.

This looks like it will run and run because it's not really about qualifying at all, as various journalists and broadcasters have said this is a battle ground for control of the sport which I won't get into right now. The qualifying saga is just a symptom of how poorly run this sport has become. 

There are many things that need to be sorted, the inequitable distribution of money to the teams (Sauber in particular are operating close to the line), the sums charged to the circuits which constantly means traditional tracks are up against it because they're not funded by some middle eastern royalty or a corrupt government somewhere (which I suppose could be anywhere). 

The messing around with the rules,the lack of a long term strategy, the sport being put on pay-tv thereby reducing overall viewing figures and sponsorship value and then wondering why viewing figures are falling and teams aren't getting enough money in, oh it must be the product, lets mess around with it.

Most importantly Commercial Rights Holders, the private equity firm CVC to sucking money out of the sport. Ideally somehow the European Commission (a complaint has been made to the European Competition Directorate by two teams) would tear up the current contracts governing the commercial rights but this could take years.

So here are a few thoughts which in an ideal world would be implemented.

• The FIA to appoint someone experienced in the world of Formula 1 to have over all control of the rule making side of the sport, someone like Ross Brawn. He would head a group of Formula 1 engineers to produce a 10 year road map for the sport so there is stability within the rules. However his decision would be the final decision with no team (looking at you Ferrari) having the right of Veto. 
• Technical regulations to remain partially road relevant but not to forget that these are meant to be exciting prototypes that should be raced to the edge. Rules to ensure close racing with more mechanical grip and less reliance on aerodynamics should be pushed through allowing us to get rid of gimmicks like DRS (although useful right now).
• To remember that this is a sport. Yes it should be entertaining but not at the expense of sporting purity. There should be no reverse grids, or qualifying sprint races, there is simply no need to mess around with the sport. You're not always going to get a thriller, but mostly the races are fine,some good, some great and some spectacular. There are many football games which are boring, but the authorities there don't suddenly think, we need to spice this up, lets stick an extra ball on the pitch.
• If CVC are still the commercial rights holder they would re-negotiate the current deals with the teams so that all teams receive the same amount of money, apart from any prize money resulting from their finishing positions in the constructors championship and sponsorship gained. Teams would agree for the good of the sport (yeah right).
• To keep the teams as even as possible a budget cap of $100-150 million to be imposed.
• A forward looking strategy for broadcasting the sport on TV and the internet. Some sports already broadcast on their own websites and on Youtube. This doesn't mean charging the earth though. The main objective should be to get the sport out to as many people as possible to create a new fan base.
• Securing traditional race tracks such as Monza, Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps on the calendar. A fairer deal for these circuits to allow them to make a profit and stop the sport heading to places which have no motor sport tradition and takes away from the core audience. In an ideal world there would be a core group of around 10-12 races with another six rotating every year to allow new events. Most importantly, make the races more of an event and something to be looked forward to.

If these were implemented I think we could look forward to a sustainable and exciting future for Formula 1. However, until Bernie Ecclestone departs its unlikely anything will change, especially while his 'employer' CVC are the main shareholders of the Formula One Group. Bernie did a lot of great things for Formula 1, but it is increasingly obvious he has lost touch and only wants few more dollars. If he's not careful his legacy will be how he destroyed a once great sport.

It would also be nice if FIA president Jean Todt decided to care about the sport, but the one thing he's tried to do recently is push a qualifying system no one wants, so perhaps it's best he stays away. The likelihood of anything changing soon is sadly not going to happen, but with the teams beginning to publicly voice their exasperation, the drivers stating their desire in an open letter to see the sports current governance abolished we can see that this current situation may just come to a head sooner rather than later. Hopefully it'll be for the better.

The race and a lot of positives from the Bahrain Grand Prix

So after all that negativity lets get on with some nice things. The Bahrain Grand Prix was a pretty good race, there wasn't anything overly spectacular about it but there were plenty of positives to take from it regarding the championship and there was some brilliant action through the field which was entertaining.

Overall the race had plenty of passing a lot of good strategy difference which helped to spice up the action and some great attacking and defensive driving.  As I mentioned in my Australian review, the extra tyre compound is really adding to the races and mixing it up nicely. It's a nice extra element on the strategy side which is actually adding something good to the sport.

Romain Grosjean once again starred for new team Haas with fifth, while Stoffel Vandoorne finished 10th putting in an assured debut for McLaren in place of the injured Fernando Alonso. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo took his second consecutive fourth place, his form looks promising and I can't wait for him to get the Renault power unit upgrade later in the season. Hopefully it'll really let him challenge.

Other notable performances came from Pascal Wehrlein in the Manor, he finished 13th but it was probably the first time in a normal dry race that Manor were really able to properly race with the other teams since they started competing in 2010, I think Wehrlein is a major part of that. 

A quick shout out to Marcus Ericsson finishing 12th for Sauber with some nice defensive driving while Kevin Magnussen came from the pit lane to finish 11th in the under developed Renault.

It was a disappointing day for Williams and Force India who despite having problems during the race just didn't seem to have the pace.

Meanwhile at the front Nico Rosberg made it two from two with a fairly easy drive to victory after a great start put him in the lead from second on the grid. For the second race in a row Lewis Hamilton's start wasn't the best, this time there was an attack from Valtteri Bottas that dropped Lewis  to seventh. He managed to climb back up to third despite damage. Bottas got a drive through penalty and could only manage ninth.

Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari finished second after making his own bad start and having to mount a come back with some great passing. Sebastian Vettel didn't even survive the formation lap, suffering an engine failure. It would have been good to see how much closer he could have got to Rosberg as he was a little quicker than Kimi all weekend. Reliability seems to be Ferrari's major problem so far this year. However, they are certainly closer and I think they'll be making Mercedes work increasingly hard as the season progresses.

With Rosberg's win giving him a 17 point gap to Hamilton, it's now time for Lewis to start coming back at him. Already we're looking like we're going to be getting a much more exciting title battle than we had in 2015.

all photographs taken from auto-motor-und-sport.de

Drivers of the year 2015

2015 wasn't a classic Formula 1 season by any stretch of the imagination, but while stuffing my face with the last of the Christmas food and dredging the last drops of alcohol I sat down to watch the F1 2015 season review DVD. 

It's brilliant, it looks gorgeous, I don't know what they did to the picture but that and the different camera angles that weren't broadcast gives it a cinematic quality that demonstrates how intoxicating this sport can be. I wonder why the F1 production team don't present the sport like this every race because it looked faster, more brutal and intense than what I've been watching over the last 12 months. At the very least it got my mind working to finally sit down and think about my drivers of the year. Twenty-two took part, so below is my list of how they performed in 2015.

22. Kevin Magnussen (McLaren-Honda)

Magnussen took part in the season opening Australian Grand Prix in place of the concussed Fernando Alonso. He needn't have bothered turning up, with car problems throughout he didn't even make it to the starting grid. He deserved better than the way he's been treated by McLaren, being dropped from the reserve role on his birthday. For now it looks like his motor racing career lies outside of F1, which I think is a great shame.


21. Roberto Merhi (Manor Marussia-Ferrari)

Struggled in the early part of the season and didn't impress much in general. He had a height and weight disadvantage to his team mate Will Stevens and it also didn't help he was turfed out to make way for Alexander Rossi for five races at the back end of the season. Occasionally he showed what he could do, but it probably wasn't enough to stay in the sport.

20. Will Stevens (Manor Marussia-Ferrari)

In the first half of the season Steven's dominated Merhi and he looked genuinely impressive as he competed in his first full season. But as the season wore on Merhi came back at him and I think doubts will have been raised when GP2 graduate Rossi stepped into Merhi's car for five races and was immediately on the pace and beating Stevens. In general it was a good year, but it wasn't great, although how great can you be in a Manor is always going to be tricky.  

19. Alexander Rossi (Manor Marussia-Ferrari)

Rossi finished runner-up in GP2 this year and also graduated to the Manor team for five races. I thought he was immediately impressive as he matched full timer Steven's in the races and out-qualified him in the final 3. It was difficult to show what he could really do with the equipment he had but it was a good starting point that could well see him on the grid for next year.

18. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus-Mercedes)

Oh Pastor. Sometimes I think poor Pastor. He was once again involved in many incidents but to be fair to him a lot of those weren't of his own making. However, there were still plenty that were including the Hungarian Grand Prix where he managed to achieve three penalties of some description. The thing with Maldonado is he's extremely fast, but he can't seem to harness that speed consistently. He's been in the sport long enough now that he should have learn't from his mistakes, that he still does occupy a seat it seems is down to his Venezuelan friends still funding him. He still had a few decent results but ultimately he was thrashed by his team mate and made to look ordinary.  


17. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber-Ferrari)

I thought Ericsson was extremely lucky to secure a drive with Sauber for 2015 after a dismal debut campaign with Caterham. Having money does help to keep doors open though. To be fair to Ericsson, despite not exactly setting the track alight with virtuoso performance he was unlucky and deserved some better results. He had a good run of points finishes and in general matched his rookie team mate. Needs to start delivering at a higher standard if he's to progress any further in Formula 1.

16. Felipe Nasr (Sauber-Ferrari)

Started brilliantly in his first race at the Australian Grand Prix to secure what would be his best result of the season with fifth. After that, lack of development with his Sauber car somewhat hindered him, but also mistakes and some flat performances stopped him achieving more. He still sporadically produced some good results and after a years experience can look towards 2016 optimistically.

15. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)

There's no doubt that since Kimi Raikkonen returned to Ferrari at the start of 2014 he has disappointed... massively. His huge fan base can no doubt cook up various reasons as to why he has been soundly thrashed by first Fernando Alonso and then equally so by Sebastian Vettel, but there's not one that could explain his current predicament entirely. 

In a season where Kimi declared himself much happier with the car, he could only manage three podiums and out qualified his team mate just four times (two of which were because of Vettel car issues). It's simply not good enough from a former world champion. However, there were still flashes of the old Kimi, his drive in Bahrain where he nearly won was brilliant for instance. It isn't enough and I think he should consider himself lucky to still have a drive.

14. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India-Mercedes)

Hulkenberg should have been in a top drive years ago. In the past he has produced results in cars that weren't worthy, but this season it feels like for large parts of the campaign he's been lacking. Hulkenberg is highly rated but for whatever reason that hasn't allowed him to progress above the midfield ranks. What were the top bosses seeing that meant they didn't want to take a chance?

He still hasn't managed a podium and there have been opportunities. Force India have scored two in the last two seasons, neither of which Hulkenberg has taken. Perhaps there are doubts if he can take those opportunities when presented to him? He may have won Le Mans this year for Porsche but in F1 his team mate Sergio Perez has taken him on and shown him up. Next season he needs to mount a bit of a comeback if he is to ever join the fight at the front and not be the forgotten man.

13. Fernando Alonso (McLaren-Honda)

He may deny it, but can anyone believe Fernando doesn't look back at his decision to leave Ferrari with some regret? What an utterly dreadful season, McLaren and Honda let each other down and they let their drivers down. Alonso's season didn't start well at all, he missed the first race of the year due to concussion from a testing accident. 

From then on there were sporadic moments of false hope and the odd surprise result like his fifth place in Hungary but there was nothing heart warming to look back on as the season ended. Alonso understandably, despite public appearances, was frustrated, a few choice radio calls demonstrated that. This is not what he rejoined McLaren for. I can't believe the situation between driver and team is all that harmonious and rumours continue to circulate he may take a sabbatical. 

Despite this Alonso rarely gives up and if there's a sniff of a decent result he'll be on it in a second, the only thing is there was rarely the scent of anything tasty and it looked like some of the time he just didn't want to be out there resulting in some lacklustre performances. If McLaren and most importantly Honda can get anywhere half decent next year then Alonso will deliver for them.

12. Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso-Renault)

The young Spaniard had many on-track fights with the elder Spanish racer Alonso which showed his superb race craft. Only 20 years old when the season started he was arguably the more impressive of the Toro Rosso rookies in the opening rounds of 2015. 

Unfortunately for Sainz bad luck and multiple problems with the car and power unit cost him many better results. He did seem rather prone to mistakes but he was equally capable of fighting back from such adversity. He certainly has the speed of his more celebrated team mate Max Verstappen but possibly is not yet quite as consistent but much of that is probably because he never really got a decent run without problems intervening. 

11.  Felipe Massa (Williams-Mercedes)

I'd have been tempted to put Massa higher on the list if he could just have maintained his form against his team mate Valtteri Bottas. For the first half of the season the Brazilian out-qualified the Finn 6-3 and for a decent portion was either ahead or level with him on points.

In the second half of the season Massa's form waned a bit, in the last 10 races he could only beat Bottas twice in qualifying and eventually fell away from him in the points although not by much. Despite this Massa showed himself to still be extremely combative in the races and some of his starts were awesome, none more magicial than when he shot past the two Mercedes to take the lead at the British Grand Prix.  

If Williams can start building forward again rather than stagnating as they did this year then I think Massa can still look to seek a win before the end of his career.

10. Jenson Button (McLaren-Honda)

I know a lot of people will be surprised to see Button placed ahead of Alonso but I genuinely think that he gave his all this year despite being treated pretty poorly by the team as they pondered his future. That he has been given another year proves his worth to the team and shows how much of a team player he is.

He still battles hard and to my mind at least got more out of the car than Alonso did on many occasions. He kept on searching for the positives when often there wasn't any, but he continued nevertheless. His sixth place in the USA was a highlight, but that says a lot about the poor state McLaren are in.

Jenson could well be approaching his final year in Formula 1 but driving the way he is at the moment it wouldn't surprise me to see him being signed up once again, it really depends if McLaren make much progress because if they don't then I can also see him walking away too.

9. Valtteri Bottas (Williams-Mercedes)

I pondered on this one for a while. Valtteri Bottas is no doubt a very good driver and could well be world champion one day. I just think that if he was to be then he'd be dominating Massa a little more than he has. Massa is a very good driver but in my opinion not the driver he was back in 2009 so Bottas should be beating him more often.

I also think he seems a bit too placid when it comes to wheel to wheel combat, although his overtake on Kimi Raikkonen when a podium was at stake in Mexico was nicely aggressive. So we know he can do it, it just doesn't seem like it is always his preferred option.

He can go missing in races, I'd like to see him race his heart out for every position and not just when there's a chance of a decent result. It's perhaps indicative that Ferrari once showed interest in him but this appears to have gone quiet recently. Having said all that, he is a very good driver and will probably one day be a winner.

8. Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull-Renault)

It wasn't a strong start to the year for Kvyat, but from Monaco onwards he was on his team mates pace pretty frequently and often the faster of the Red Bull's. His race in Belgium was a particular highlight as he made some impressive over takes to charge from twelfth to fourth. 

He became more confident but there was still the odd mistake, although it shouldn't be forgotten this was only his second year in Formula 1 and he is still only 21 years old.

There's no doubt he's only going to get better and although he out-scored Ricciardo this was mostly down to circumstance and slightly better reliability, but he will be a definite contender once Renault sort out their problems. Hopefully he can show more of what he can do next season.

7. Sergio Perez (Force India-Mercedes)

It's tempting to write that Perez was a revelation this season, but was he really? We've known he's good at managing the tyres to a surprise result pretty much since he came into the sport, but his reputation took a severe knock when he was at McLaren.

Since his arrival at Force India I would say he's restored if not bettered his reputation. Taking on Hulkenberg who is highly rated has done wonders for Perez as he's often out-performed him. Although he might not have the ultimate pace of his team mate he seems more at home when there are big results on offer.

He doesn't buckle under pressure and is capable of bringing the car home, in short he grasps the opportunity when it's presented. He was impressive this year.

6. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull-Renault)

This time last year Ricciardo was celebrated as the best driver of the year with his brilliant performances up against four time champion Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull. He truly was the man of the moment, charging through any gaps presented to him, grabbing with both hands any victory or podium chance that came his way.

He had speed, style and a brilliant consistency that would be hard to live with for any team mate. Three victories, the only non-Mercedes driver to win in 2014 was the icing on the Ricciardo cake. The Renault in the back of the Red Bull would surely be improved to allow him a proper crack at the title in 2015.

It wasn't, it was worse and the frustration at times clouded his driving. Some of the moves that before would have been sublime and pinpoint accurate now appeared desperate. So it is with all due credit that those moments were few and despite the frustrations of not being in a race winning car Ricciardo charged on. 

In fact he came close to winning twice this year, scored a couple of podiums and would have far more points if it weren't for the car or more accurately the power unit. Ricciardo re-set his targets and was still delivering. I can't wait to see him in a title challenging car.

5. Romain Grosjean (Lotus-Mercedes)

Grosjean was brilliant this year. He comprehensively thrashed his team mate Maldonado, utterly dominating him in qualifying and more often than not out racing him too. 

His podium finish in Belgium was very deserving giving the car probably more than it really warranted. He's leaving for new team Haas next year which has strong connections to Ferrari, so the potential is there for Grosjean to be moving up a level in a few years. I hope he won't be forgotten if the team struggles in its debut season.

But what you get with Grosjean is a driver who can learn from his mistakes. He's constantly developing and working to become better. He's one of the fastest out there and very consistent too. He gave Lotus a far better season than they would have had without him. Getting into the top 10 of qualifying 13 times was pretty remarkable. He was under the radar a lot of the time but when he needed to battle and race he was ready to shine, possibly his best year in the sport to date.
  
4. Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso-Renault)

This kid is entertainment. Verstappen is just brilliant, he has bravery in abundance, car control which is sublime, and the skills to go wheel to wheel with the very best.

For someone who was only 17 at the start of the season he didn't seem overawed in the slightest despite the hype surrounding him as the youngest ever F1 driver. He quickly established himself as just one of the drivers, but one who often would create the entertainment as he battled away in the midfield.

There's possibly some drivers who should be above him, he did make mistakes, he did push things too far sometimes but to me it's just a young driver trying to find the limits, the very edge of the edge. His overtake on Felipe Nasr at Spa around the outside of Blanchimont at 200mph was simply breathtaking. 

He may have only raced in cars for one year before he joined Formula 1 but his place in this sport is richly deserved. I'm looking forward to seeing how he'll cope with the pressure now people know what to expect. If anything I expect him to get even better even if his Toro Rosso will be hobbled by a year old engine next season. Max has got a very bright future.

3. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

If Lewis Hamilton is the fastest driver in the sport right now, then it follows that Nico Rosberg must be spectacularly good too seeing as he is often only a slither behind and sometimes ahead.

Rosberg is a very good driver, he can dominate race weekends just as well as anyone. He's extremely fast and arguably if Lewis Hamilton wasn't his team mate he'd be a double world champion right now.

But Lewis is his team mate and he's not and the truth is he never looked like he would be a title winner this year. For the first 16 races he was beaten badly. Even as he started his run of six pole positions in the last six races, Hamilton still beat him in the first three of those. Once the title was wrapped up the pressure eased and Rosberg relaxed and he stormed the last three races to win all of them.

If only he could drive like that when the pressure of a championship is at stake. Maybe those three wins and six 2015 wins in total will give him the momentum heading into 2016. We'll see, but if Mercedes are dominant again, for the sake of the audience we need Rosberg at his best Lewis beating form then we'll have a fight. It remains to be seen whether he is capable of that throughout a year.

2. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)

Vettel looked a shadow of himself during his last season at Red Bull in 2014. He struggled to adapt to the new regulations, he was being walked over by Ricciardo and he seemed disillusioned with the sport. It also didn't help that after four years of continuous success he didn't seem able to process the reality that he didn't have a car to challenge for the title.

So he left for Ferrari and what a transformation. Vettel was rejuvenated this year, he was back to his best. It seemed like he'd taken on the role of Ricciardo in 2014, as he maximised any opportunity to take on the Mercedes, beating them three times to claim his first victories since 2013.

He was inspired sometimes, Singapore produced the only non-Mercedes pole position of the year and it was probably the lap of the season, brilliantly committed. He kept himself in title contention until both he and Rosberg were defeated with three races to spare, but in the Ferrari, although much progress had been made, that was impressive.

It was great to see Vettel happy and driving how he wanted to again. He has a thirst for success that I don't think any other driver can equal at the moment and I'm sure it won't be long before he has emulated his childhood hero Michael Schumacher and taken Ferrari back to the top. 2016 has a lot of potential to be a classic title fight, Hamilton better watch out.

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

Quite simply untouchable. At least for the first 16 races. Perhaps it was inevitable after wrapping up the title with three races to spare that Lewis would take his foot off the gas a little bit, although you just have to listen to his radio calls to the team to realise he was still wanting to be leader of the pack.

Hamilton raised the bar this year. He obliterated his team mate Rosberg for most of the season. 12 pole positions from the first 13 races is remarkable as is taking another 10 wins in an exceptional display of speed and consistency.

Truthfully the title was never really in doubt after the first few races. Hamilton was on another level. There were occasional missteps such as in Hungary, but generally no one could get close. Even the disappointment of losing Monaco due to a team (and Lewis is included in that) cock up wasn't enough to knock him from his stride.

In previous years it might have but his mind management is improved, he simply reset and won the next race. I imagine it'll nag him a little bit that Rosberg won the last three races, but I won't be surprised to see him destroy his team mate when battle resumes in Australia next season. Reset and win is how Hamilton seems to operate.

More than anything though, I think Hamilton would like a challenge, not just from Rosberg but from another team. If Ferrari can challenge Mercedes next year, expect Hamilton to set the bar higher again as he goes wheel to wheel with Vettel. A great year from a great champion, there really wasn't an equal.

all photographs taken from autosport.com

Rosberg ends the season in style

Winner and star of the race

Where was this form at the beginning of the year? Nico Rosberg took his sixth win of the year and his third in a row. In fact it's been all Rosberg since Lewis wrapped up the championship in America.

Nico was dominant in qualifying, over a third of a second clear as he took his sixth pole position in succession. He streaked away at the start and in truth despite Lewis coming at him in the middle of the race had everything under control.

Hamilton has complained that he feels the way the car has been developed over the latter part of the season has kept him from finding that final bit of pace, but let's not take anything away from Rosberg, he has been in fine form and this is brilliant momentum to take him into the winter and will have him very hopeful for 2016.

But of course 2016 is a whole new beginning. Mercedes should still be strong but Ferrari are after them with particularly Sebastian Vettel surely a major championship challenger next year, but perhaps more importantly for Rosberg, Hamilton will have reset. It should not be forgotten he took the title this year with relative ease, clinching it with three rounds to spare. 

Hamilton has been living the high life even more since he won the title and it's got to be said that even though it might be that he's not as comfortable with the car it's also not too difficult to suggest that perhaps he's taken his eye off the game just a little since he took the big prize. 

With the season starting afresh I expect Lewis to come back stronger and more focused which is when we'll really see if Rosberg can handle another bruising title campaign. With Vettel looking like he'll be part of the fight next year it's even more important that Rosberg can start as strongly as he's finished this year otherwise he may get relegated to a support role for Lewis, something I'm sure he wouldn't enjoy at all. For now though, Rosberg will be feeling confident and that's a good feeling to have as we start the off-season.

Lewis Hamilton finished second and was again arguing with the team about strategy as he tried to get ahead of his team mate, but once again he was found lacking. I'm sure he'll come back stronger as long as he doesn't let those thoughts that Mercedes were trying to help Rosberg out in these last few races.

Kimi Raikkonen produced probably his best weekend of the year with strong qualifying and racing to finish third, while his Ferrari team mate Vettel fought from 15th on the grid to finish fourth. 

Force India's Sergio Perez was a contender for star of the race as he started fourth and finished fifth in what has been a great run of form for the Mexican. His team mate Nico Hulkenberg was way off his pace in seventh. Splitting the Force India's was Daniel Ricciardo who drove a feisty race for sixth, while Williams disappointed as they released Valtteri Bottas into Jenson Button during a pit stop earning him a penalty and a new front wing. Felipe Massa wasn't much better off as he lacked pace for only eighth. A disappointing end to 2015 for Williams.

Romain Grosjean gave a great showing after a grid penalty dropped him to 18th at the start. He rose to ninth with some great battling and a good strategy. It was his last race for Lotus as he goes to join new team Haas next year. Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat claimed the last point.

The battles

Once again we relied on the midfield to provide our entertainment after what was another less than thrilling race. Carlos Sainz was the stronger Toro Rosso driver this weekend with Max Verstappen suffering a scrappy Sunday evening. Jenson Button in the McLaren enjoyed his fighting despite only finishing 13th. Fernando Alonso wanted to retire early after taking out Pastor Maldonado at the start and having to change his front wing and then getting a drive through penalty. It's not been a good year for him. Rumours continue to circulate that the Spaniard may not even drive next year if Honda and McLaren haven't seriously raised their game by the first test.

Reflection

It's been another dominant campaign for Mercedes, but unlike last year until the title was sewn up, Rosberg hasn't been able to match Hamilton for much of the season resulting in a rather uninspired title fight. However, this shouldn't take anything away from Lewis who has driven beautifully for most of the year. His qualifying speed was electric for the first two thirds of the season and when that hasn't been there, he's been aggressive off the start and put Rosberg in his place. I don't think he'll be overly concerned by Rosberg's recent run of form, Hamilton is still the champion after all. 

It's good that Ferrari have slowly begun to catch Mercedes. The scarlet cars are not quite able to match them yet, but another winter could see them make the step up to be silver beaters. Vettel will certainly be ready, he's been rejuvenated this year after struggling during his final season at Red Bull.

At the other end of the grid, the once mighty giant of Formula 1 McLaren will be hoping for something special from Honda over the winter. By all accounts the chassis wasn't too bad, but if Honda can't find the solutions they seek it'll be another tough year facing them.

Special mentions for Perez, Ricciardo and Grosjean, who I think have all delivered strong campaigns this year. Perhaps though it is Max Verstappen who could well be many peoples driver of the year just for his entertainment factor, he has produced some truly inspired driving. Many times this season he has livened up some fairly insipid races.

It's a fact that this year hasn't produced the racing at the front that everyone desires. Sometimes sport is like that though and we shouldn't have overreaction, Formula 1 is still a fine product, and as rules stay the same so competition will close up. I expect a far fiercer battle at the front next season.

Of course this year has been tormented by politics, particularly with regards to money and teams and even the sports rule makers and owners never seeming to be willing to look at the big picture. Hopefully after two teams made a complaint to the European Competition commission there will be some much needed action to put the teams and the sport on a much more even footing and we can concentrate on the racing. For too long have we had to worry about teams and circuit finances and it's time it stopped.

Already teams will be focusing on next season, there's a tyre test next week in Abu Dhabi before real testing for 2016 gets going at the beginning of February. Formula 1 never rests...

photos taken from auto-motor-und-sport.de and autosport.com

Rosberg wins in Brazil as Verstappen entertains

Nico Rosberg won the Brazilian Grand Prix in quite emphatic style from his fifth straight pole position. His Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton claimed he had the pace to beat Rosberg but just couldn't get close enough to pass, but in reality it looked like Rosberg had the world champion covered for the second race in a row.

Maybe if Rosberg had displayed this kind of driving earlier in the year we'd be looking forward to a title decider in Abu Dhabi in two weeks time but Hamilton has had him under the thumb for pretty much the entire season until the pressure was off when the the title was claimed two races ago in America.

It was a less than enthralling race which to be honest matches most of the races in 2015 with only a few epics to remind us how great Formula 1 can be. Once again as the battle at the front remained static it was left to the midfield to bring the entertainment and once again the driver doing most of the entertaining was Max Verstappen. 

This still only 18 year old superstar in the making was mixed up in the fight and for the umpteenth time is star of the race simply for the move he put on Sergio Perez into the Senna S, turns 1 and 2 of the lap.

With the down on power Renault power unit in the back of his Toro Rosso it was never going to be easy to pass for Verstappen or the other Red Bull affiliated cars. So when Verstappen got close enough to the Mercedes powered Force India of Perez it had to be a bit of a do or die move.

He had the DRS on the start finish straight and dived to the outside of turn one and just held it alongside Perez before hugging the kerb and the inside of turn two leaving Perez with the option of giving in or crashing. Perez wisely chose the former, Verstappen was through and went on to claim two points for ninth.

Verstappen has gotten better and better as the season has gone on, it's going to be so exciting to see him in a top car which isn't likely to be too far away.

Meanwhile at the front, Hamilton was asking to be switched to a different strategy in his attempts to get by Rosberg, but Mercedes have a policy that unless it's absolutely necessary then both drivers will run with the same strategy in the interests of fairness.

That is indeed fair enough, but for the entertainment factor there needed to be something different for one of them to provide us with a battle for the lead. Hamilton often closed the gap down, but Rosberg made no mistakes and as the tyres wore down was able to pull a gap to keep Lewis at bay.

There's meant to be a shake up in the rules for 2017 to allow the cars to stay closer to each other, therefore making overtaking easier. Unfortunately a lot of the sports commentators and even the drivers like Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel are saying it looks like the direction these new rules are going to go to won't help at all. By allowing the cars pace to be dictated by the front wing and body work it means the car behinds airflow will always be spoiled by the car in front, leaving them with not enough down force to remain close.

If the the cars were given more grip by the tyres and ground effect aero was given more of a priority then this would change. Over the years I've heard this argument many times, but for whatever reason the rule makers are not listening. So even though I applaud the sport for wanting to make the cars look better, sound better and go up to six seconds a lap faster, what's the point if the racing isn't going to be any better? 

Rule changes often allow the bigger teams to increase the gap over the midfield anyway and once again we could end up with one team dominant. If the main aim is to increase competition there is an argument to leave the rules as they are as time and again it's been proven that stability in regulations closes the field up.

There's also been a lot of talk about how to make Formula 1 more competitive in general. Well first thing first is to give the teams equal money. Fine if some teams can acquire more sponsorship, I guess that's just life, but why not let the teams have an equal starting point? I hope the European Competition commission will rip up the current contracts giving some teams a hugely inequitable amount of money and see to it that all teams are paid the same.

For the good of the sport it's about time the teams stopped thinking of just themselves. In a perfect world, all the teams would be paid the same amount with the only difference being the money they get from their finishing position in the constructors championship the previous year. However, that is going to take years to sort out. For the fastest sport in the world, sorting anything out fairly is like watching a snail go from one end of the garden and back. I'm sure it's an interesting journey though.

Formula 1 has it's problems but it shouldn't be forgotten that generally speaking there also isn't too much wrong with the product, there shouldn't be knee jerk reactions just because something isn't working out for a year.

All sports have their seasons where there isn't as much competition at the top but F1 hasn't had it so bad, in 6 of the past 10 seasons the championship has gone down to the last race. There is plenty of competition, sometimes it just takes a while to come together, or as in the case this year, one driver is just simply head and shoulders above the rest which should be admired and not criticised.

However, silly ideas like reverse grids, success ballast, qualifying races and the like have no place in Formula 1. This sport is meant to be the pinnacle and artificial ways of spicing up the entertainment so directly should not be encouraged. Perhaps there could be less practice but a qualifying race isn't a good idea, it would take away from the main event.

If anything perhaps one way of helping keep competition closer is to stop the teams at the front from developing their cars for a few races so others can have a chance at catching up. For instance in a 20 race season, after the first five races, the teams at the top would be held to keep their car in that spec until the final five races and the title run in. 

Teams behind would continue to be allowed to develop but if they haven't caught up in a certain time frame then it's tough luck, they've had their chance. Of course top teams would fight against this, but if they were suddenly in a position that say McLaren find themselves in I'm sure they'd love it. It's a rough sketch, but it gives opportunities for those behind to catch up while leaving the sporting action still a sport and not WWE.

Having said all that with the the current rules generally stable for a third season, next year looks to be shaping up nicely with Ferrari and Vettel on course to give Hamilton and Mercedes a serious run for their money. Speaking of Vettel, he finish third with some good race pace not far off the Mercedes, while his team mate Kimi Raikkonen was a lonely fourth.

Valtteri Bottas in the Williams had the start of the day moving from seventh to fifth where he stayed. Force India's Nico Hulkenberg was sixth, Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull was seventh, Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado in the Lotuses were eighth and tenth. Maldonado managed to hit Marcus Ericsson for which he received a 5 second penalty. Both cars managed to continue so that's positive.

Felipe Massa in the other Williams was originally eighth but was disqualified when his right rear tyre was 0.1 psi above the minimum tyre pressure Pirelli allow. The tyre blanket was also 27C hotter than the 110C maximum allowed. For various reasons Williams are appealing as their independent measurements show the tyre was within the required tyre pressures. All very exciting.

McLaren disappointed again but at least Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso got to the finish. Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull started from the back after an engine penalty but could only work his way up to 12th. Speaking of Red Bull all their bluster and threats of leaving the sport have come to nothing. What a surprise when their contract to get paid more money from the commercial rights holders and holds them to the sport until 2020 also stipulates they'd have to pay about half a billion to leave. It looks like they will be back with Renault next season but with the possibility of developing the engine themselves.

Anyway, the F1 circus rolls on to Abu Dhabi now where hopefully we'll get an epic finale to take us into the winter with fond memories of what has otherwise been a less than thrilling campaign.

all photos taken from autosport.com

Rosberg wins Mexican race, Bottas takes brilliant podium

Star of the race

Valtteri Bottas took the final podium place for Williams at the Mexican Grand Prix with a fine drive from 6th on the grid. He made a good start to be battling with the Red Bulls immediately and put a simple but effective DRS assisted move on Daniil Kvyat to move into third place.

What was most impressive was his move on Kimi Raikkonen. I've often thought that Bottas backs out far too often when fighting wheel to wheel but on this occasion he kept his foot in against Kimi. The Ferrari was on worn tyres and having to defend after starting on the medium compound after a poor qualifying and a penalty. 

The Williams had just pitted and was soon chasing down Kimi. He made a move into turn 4, hanging around the outside, Kimi turned in on Bottas leaving the Ferrari out of the race with damaged rear suspension, but luckily for Bottas he survived to score his first podium since the Canadian race in June.

The Winner

Lewis Hamilton may have just been crowned world champion for a third time but it was his Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg who drove a brilliant race to remind Lewis and the team he s still a force to be reckoned with... Occasionally.

Rosberg was pretty much flawless all weekend taking his fourth pole position in succession then making a perfect start and leading start to finish not counting the pit stops. Every time Hamilton made a charge, Rosberg was able to counter it with another fastest lap. There were no mistakes and he drove to the chequered flag to take probably his best win of the year.

After Hamilton's decimation of Rosberg this year, it shows Nico's character that he can still bring out a great performance when perhaps he'd just want this season to be done with. If only he could've driven like this every weekend then the title chase might have been a bit closer.

Lewis seemed a bit annoyed when Mercedes chose to pit Rosberg as a precaution and them himself. He stayed out for an extra two laps as he debated with the team why he needed to pit, he felt he could make the tyres last to the end but the team overruled him with a few terse radio messages and eventually Hamilton pitted to fall behind Rosberg once again and take the runner up spot.

Vettel had a terrible race as he suffered with what seemed like braking issues, spinning off once before later crashing and bringing out the safety car. With both Ferrari's out it was their worst race of the year by far. 

Both Red Bull's were fairly competitive in the thinner air pressure of Mexico City as it stands well above sea level. Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth and fifth with the other Williams of Felipe Massa finishing sixth.

The Force India's were strong once again, with Nico Hulkenberg getting the better strategy to beat home hero Sergio Perez, seventh and eighth respectively. Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean completed the top ten. McLaren were out of their depth in Mexico, Fernando Alonso retiring after just one lap. 

The battles


Lots of battles down the field, although the one everyone wanted was the Mercedes cars going wheel to wheel. They remained close all race but there was to be no scrapping. The Williams and Red Bull's provided plenty of close racing as did the Toro Rosso's and Force India's with Carlos Sainz particularly displaying some wild driving.

Kimi was charging well before his accident and Vettel seemed to be involved in incident and action throughout his shortened race.

Things of note
The first Mexican Grand Prix since 1992 was packed to capacity, the appetite for Formula 1 was huge in the central American country. It just goes to show that you don't always need to end up in countries where they have no motor sport tradition but their government has a blank cheque to build a track which ends up being a soulless empty shell that swiftly gets abandoned.

Red Bull and Honda are apparently in talks to finally get some engines for 2016. This story looks like it will run for a while but McLaren certainly don't want it to happen if Honda come good next season after the hell they've been through this year.

all photos taken from autosport.com